daily life of a japanese mom

Bento Danshi /弁当男子

The new word ‘Bento Danshi’ has been floating these days. That means a guy who fix his lunch bag by himself. Bento/lunch bags have been normally packed by wives, mothers, and girls but recently, some guys packed them spontaneously by themselves as for saving money or just taking it as a matter of fact. I feel time has changed. They used to say “男子、厨房に入らず” that means “Stay away from the kitchen, that’s how a man is supposed to be” in old days. Males in my father’s generation or even in my generation, that means including my husband, don’t want to cook regurarly, except for someone that like to cook. For the future, girls demand more to boys, so cooking will be a must have skill to be called ‘my honey’ for both sex.

So, I have trained Tatsu since he was 4 years old. He can now cook several meals by himself without my help like yakisoba, spaghetti, fried rice, and Japanese curry. He will be able to pack his bento all in good time.

Yep, my father can cook and do alot of housework. When he makes his famous black soya sauce beef with those big leeks I am always FIRST in line ^_^ I absolutely love the bento boxes and how neat the food is served in it. I remember my dad bought some nice lacquerware bento boxes which unfortunately is now gone when we all moved to our new home. Speaking of bento, I’m having a really nice Japanese meal for my birthday tonight but unfortunately im by myself as my husband is very busy at work😦 Your Tatsu can cook spaghetti, yakisoba, curry and fried rice ..my my my he is going to grow up into a really good cook ..why he could be the next Jamie Oliver!

For example, my husband doesn’t know how to operate the laundry machine. He can’t peel off the skin of an apple, he can eat it as good as chimp though. He has cooked only a few times sinse we met. He is the typical man in my generation. He would do if I asked, but jobs he can do are so limited. Moreover, when I see my husband does housework, somehow I feel guilty. It’s true. I guess my parents have very conservative ideas and I have not seen my father doing any housework as I growing up. So, I try to have my husband do some housework as possible and show it to Tatsu. I think it would help Tatsu to have the idea that he can do anything except for ‘delivery’. haha

Happy birthday to you!!! I hope you recover quickly and have more healthier days!

Thank you Naoko! I am now fully recovered, my scars seem to be healing fast and my doctor was surprised to see me on my feet on the 2nd day after my surgery although he did say to try and rest if possible but my body seems to be stubborn. Now I am watching what I eat allowing my digestive system to get use to without my gallbladder.

Hahahaha @ I think it would help Tatsu to have the idea that he can do anything except for ‘delivery’😀 I must say you are teaching your son very well, for him to know how to cook just shows what a fine lad he will grow up into. My father is very used to doing some of the housework. He’s happy to do the laundry and sometimes hanging them but he would not even touch the part of folding or ironing them. he is happy to do the gardening as he is the man with the green fingers. However he would never touch the dishes😀

I love to pack my lunch! When I was teaching full-time, I packed my lunch rather than eat the school-lunch. School-lunch can be very unhealthy. Lots of fried foods…
These are my bentos from that time…http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg71/monkey_bill/
Perhaps they don’t look so attractive, but they were tastey!

> For example, my husband doesn’t know how to operate the laundry machine.

Perhaps I have a typical Asian ‘husband’…
Andrew can’t do much around the house.

He can’t do laundry!

But he can vaccum well, wash rice and put it in the rice cooker. He can fry an egg, but not season it.

Oh, he can chop meat or vegetables if I ask him while I’m cooking. That’s really helpful!

Wow!!! You have hinomaru bento!? Hahaha! You are very good at bento packing!!
Yeah, they look beautiful and healthy.
I also checked the ‘lunchinabox’. It’s amazing and a little bit strange to see the americans having a picnic with onigiri!!

What the hell! Now I really want to move to Japan! My girlfriend can’t cook at all! I always have to cook. My girlfriend just started to use the blender. Even that was only because I yelled at her. Americans eat out alot. So much so that I don’t many of them that can cook well at all. And then my girlfriend complains that all I cook is asian or cajin food or my weirdness at always using chopsticks. ‘Hashi’, is that right Naoko? By the way I also love to bake. Have you ever had spiced pumpkin bread? I could give you my personal recipe, if you like. I love it.